• Denver is the best place in the country to buy a home, according to a Forbes study reported by The Denver Business Journal. It all comes down to Denver’s strong “fundamentals,” the report says, citing an increase in prices paid per square foot this year and less of a drop in transactions than other cities over the last year. “Denver scores very well in terms of being able to bring people into a stable housing market,” an economist said, pointing to great “growth potential.” Cities following Denver on the list: Phoenix, Boston, San Diego and Los Angeles. Detroit was in the worst shape of 25 cities analyzed. Read the whole Forbes report here.

• Colorado Safeway workers this week voted overwhelmingly to reject a contract offer and reauthorize a strike “if the corporation does not offer a contract proposal that includes livable wages and a secure retirement,” the United Food and Commercial Workers Local No. 7 reported. The vote against accepting Safeway’s counter-offer was unanimous in most areas, echoing a similar rejection last week by King Soopers workers of that chain’s offer. Neither chain’s workers are striking yet. “Our hope at this point is that the company gets back to the negotiating table.” a union spokeswoman told The Denver Post.

• Although most of the beef has probably already been consumed, the JBS Swift Beef Co. has recalled 41,000 pounds of beef shipped from its plant in Greeley because of possible E. coli contamination, the Greeley Tribune reports. The beef left the plant in late April bound for retailers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah and Wisconsin. Questions? Call the JBS Swift consumer hotline at (800) 555-7675.

• The Servicemembers Legal Defense Network applauded U.S. Rep. Jared Polis for “respectfully  challenging”  House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat, to move ahead on legislation to repeal the “Don’t  Ask,  Don’t  Tell” policy during discussion on the House floor Thursday. Skelton agreed with the openly gay Boulder Democrat to schedule more hearings and involve the Pentagon and White House.

• State Sen. Dave Schultheis is backing a protest against fee increases for drivers that take effect July 1, according to the Colorado Springs Republican’s Twitter feed. The Republican Study Committee of Colorado, a self-described “caucus of state legislators committed to conservative principles,” is organizing angry taxpayers to protest new registration and late fees to fund the “Dem-backed” FASTER transportation program approved by the Legislature this spring. But curb the violence — Schultheis’ neighbor, state Rep. Kent Lambert, tweets: “We’ve heard of outraged drivers turning violent over new illegal car taxes! Let’s always protest PEACEFULLY, and just vote the rascals out!”

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Wasting no time, the union representing grocery workers — involved in ongoing negotiations over a contract set to expire at the end of the month — flayed the governor for “(siding) with corporate interests over working families and an economic recovery” with the veto.

Ritter said in a letter to the Colorado House of Representatives that he was open to “future discussion” on the lockout provisions, but that he was concerned the legislation could “make a negotiated resolution of the grocery store contract more difficult, not less.”

At least some grocery workers aren’t buying it. From a United Food and Commercial Workers Local 7 release:

“As someone who voted for Bill Ritter in 2006, and who believed him when he talked about ‘policies that intersect with where people struggle’ in his inaugural address, I’m really disappointed that he hasn’t kept his promises to working people.” said Andrea Karr, a 20-year Safeway employee who works in Englewood and lives in Highlands Ranch. “This was a veto from someone who doesn’t understand people like me, people like me work hard and play by the rules to support our families. The big corporations have the advantage in this fight. They have the money and the power, as the Governor’s veto today showed.”

“Nobody asked workers about timing when Gov. Owens changed the law in 1999,” said Julie Collier, a 30-year King Soopers employee from Westminster. “When is the timing right to help the people who make $10 an hour, not just the people who make $10 million a year?”

Proponents of House Bill 1170 argued it merely restored benefits available for decades to workers locked out by employers. In 1999, a Republican-controlled Legislature passed a law eventually signed by Gov. Bill Owens, also a Republican, that stripped the ability of workers to collect unemployment benefits locked out during a labor dispute. The change came three years after Safeway workers collected benefits during a month-long lockout aimed at pressuring striking King Soopers workers.

In his veto letter, Ritter said the state shouldn’t “interject itself” into contract negotiations, which have been at a standstill over union demands for wage increases and continued pension funding while grocery stores are proposing wage freezes and cuts to pension plans. After describing the looming impasse, Ritter writes:

… In these troubled economic times, I am deeply concerned about the effect a strike or lockout of employees would have on grocery store workers and consumers across the state, and I am concerned that signing this bill into law will make a negotiated resolution of the grocery store contract more difficult, not less. Therefore, under these circumstances, the state should not interject itself into these contract negotiations by enacting House Bill 09-1170 into law.

The merits of this bill, however, are worthy of future discussion and perhaps future legislation. In 1999, the statutory provision that House Bill 09-1170 would repeal and reenact was substantially amended for the first time in twenty-four years, upsetting the longstanding balance governing when locked-out and striking workers were eligible for unemployment benefits. The issue of how best to restore this balance is a debate that we should have. But the debate should be had and legislation crafted outside of the shadow of a major contract negotiation that has the imminent threat of a strike or lockout.

The bill wouldn’t have affected grocery bargaining, a UFCW spokeswoman contended. “It would have taken effect on July 1, 2009, well past the current grocery contracts’ deadline on May 30,” Laura K. Chapin said in a statement.

Firefighter Joel Heinneman, who appeared in anti-47 ads, takes the stage to speak to fellow opponents of 'right-to-work.' (Photo/Erin Rosa)

At an event at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Denver — separate from the Democratic bash that was taking place around the same area — hundreds of union supporters gathered to watch the results come in, whooping and hollering as the fate of Amendment 47 began to appear more dismal.

The measure, which was backed by number of business groups including the state chamber of commerce, failed with a “nay” vote of at least 55 percent, according to the most recent polling results on the early morning hours of Wednesday.

“God bless Colorado and God bless Colorado voters,” yelled UFCW Local 7 president Ernest Duran with the No on 47 campaign over a microphone shortly after the results were announced at approximately 9 p.m.

The proponents of Amendment 47 with the group A Better Colorado also released a statement after the results, stating that “The outcome, we feel, was unfortunate, but we are comforted in knowing that we took a principled stand and fought for it until the end.”

Former Democratic state lawmaker Mike Cerbo, who helped to fight the proposal as head of the Colorado AFL-CIO union coalition, said he thought the measure failed because voters “didn’t see a need for Amendment 47.”

Not only did numerous unions unite in opposition to Amendment 47, but they also drew upon a unique alliance between major business leaders and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, raising millions to defeat the measure after labor agreed in October to pull four other proposals that would have regulated business practices.

At the time of the arrangement, businessman and Oakwood Homes founder Pat Hamill called the partnership “an unprecedented campaign” in Colorado politics.

Said Littleton firefighter Joel Heinemann, a campaign supporter who claimed Amendment 47 would have weakened the bargaining rights for public servants in the state, “Today the voters showed me and my fellow firefighters that they support us.”

Amendment 47 was first proposed for the ballot in the summer of 2007 and was initially sponsored by Aurora city councilman Ryan Frazier.

The pair attended a “No on 47″ kick-off rally at the local United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union headquarters Saturday, reportedly pledging to fight the proposal until Election Day, according to a news release from the union:

Salazar said he “sat next to the backers of 47 and asked them to get rid of 47 because it is bad for Colorado and they said no.” Salazar continued, “We need to band together to fight 47 and I’m going to be there every inch of the way. Amendment 47 is a distraction to the real issues affecting Colorado. It will weaken our economy if not defeated.”

Perlmutter concurred, adding: “Most big businesses and chambers are standing with working men and women of Colorado to defeat this miserable piece of junk. [Amendment 47] would continue to divide the very top from the rest of us,” and said it was “designed to hurt working men and women.”

In addition to fighting the “right-to-work” measure, the UFCW local is sponsoring two other ballot measures this year, in what has become the longest state ballot in the nation. Amendment 56 would require companies with more than 20 employees to provide health care coverage and Amendment 57 would give employees injured on the job stronger legal rights against their employers.

The proposals cover a wide variety of workplace issues, including company tax credits, workplace safety, health insurance and a standard living wage for Colorado workers.
According to draft ballot proposals obtained by Colorado Confidential, the UFCW is planning to put five issues up for a vote this election season.

One proposal would require all employers to supply an annual wage or salary increase to account for an increase in the cost of living, as measured by the state’s Consumer Price Index.

Another would prohibit the state from providing tax credits or subsidies to corporations or companies with business operations in Colorado that move all or part of their operations to locations outside the United States.

One UFCW proposal mirrors a similar ballot measure that has already been submitted for consideration, which would require companies with more than 20 employees to provide medical health care coverage.

The remaining two would increase the valuation for assessments of non-residential properties and give employees injured on the job stronger legal rights against their employers.

In a statement released by the union, UFCW Local 7 spokesman Manny Gonzales said that the measures are to counter a “right-to-work” measure that seeks to weaken labor’s organizing power in the state.

“If this ‘right-to-work’ amendment passes we believe it will have severe detrimental effects on the quality of life for Colorado’s working families,” Gonzales said. “These initiatives will protect workers’ rights.”

All measures must gain title through the state’s Legislative Council and collect enough petition signatures to be placed on the 2008 ballot.